Facsimile recorders employing a light-sensitive record medium, photographic printing paper or an intermediate record medium and containing an electrically controllable optical component with spot elements which block or pass light, have been disclosed in the prior art. An optical printer with a magnetically controllable optical component is described in a paper by B. Hill and K. P. Schmidt, "Integrierte Lichtmodulationsmatrizen aus magnetooptischem Eisengranat fur neuartige Datensichtgerate und optische Drucker", NTG-Fachberichte, Vo. 67, Berlin, pages 107 to 116.
Current commercially available remote copiers have a resolution of 3.85 lines/mm and a transmission period of one to six minutes per DIN-A4 page, the spots of each line being recorded one after the other. The next generation of such remote copiers is to have a resolution of 7.7 lines/mm and a transmission period of 5 to 20 seconds. This means that 1,728 spots will be recorded in each line of a DIN-A4 page. This will increase the amount of circuitry required to drive the controllable optical component. The parallel recording of the spots necessitates storing the input signals, which further increases the amount of drive circuitry required.
What would be desirable therefore is to provide a device for controlling the spot elements of an optically controllable component in a facsimile recorder which permits a high writing speed with minimum circuitry.